Wednesday, February 10, 2016

A Critical Examination of "Being Black" in the Juvenile Justice System

The current study examined
the role of race in juvenile court outcomes across 3 decision-making stages.
This analysis was conducted with a random sample of all delinquent referrals in
a Northeast state from January 2000 through December 2010 (N = 68,188).

The findings show that Black youth received
disadvantaged court outcomes at 2 of the 3 stages, even after balancing both
groups on a number of confounders. Black youth were treated harsher at intake
and judicial disposition, but received leniency at adjudication compared with
similarly situated Whites.

These relationships were the most evident at the
stage of judicial disposition. The findings impact both researchers' and
policymakers' strategies to more fully understand the complex relationship
between race and social control.

They also reaffirm the noticeable role that
selection bias can play in the research surrounding race differences in
juvenile court outcomes, and highlight the importance of utilizing a more
stringent statistical model to control for selection bias.